![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/04\/AL-Music.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
R<\/span>eactions to AI-generated art have ranged from polite interest to a disavowing howl. Many artists feel as though their livelihood is being threatened by software that, in a few moments, can generate content that takes them many hours to complete. What\u2019s more, the technology is good. Very good.<\/span><\/p>\n While there is much media attention on the visual arts, AI-generated music has also made its mark. Drawing from a database of existing compositions and directed by a user prompt, an AI can generate a completely convincing piece of music in a few moments. This technology has been used in experimental applications to complete some of the unfinished works of the great masters; notably, Beethoven\u2019s 10th Symphony which only ever existed as a few sketches in the composer\u2019s notebook.<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, the consensus seems to be that musical works produced by technology tend to have minor imperfections. But there\u2019s no denying the fact that the results are very impressive. Proponents of the technology argue that AI will be a boon to artists by reducing the amount of time they spend on the mechanics of the creative process. This may be true, but the artistic process isn\u2019t just the mindless execution of a task \u2014 it\u2019s highly interactive and essential to the evolution of the artist\u2019s craft.<\/span><\/p>\n Iconic bandleader John Philip Sousa once pitched a famous hissy-fit in his 1906 essay, \u201cThe Menace Of Mechanical Music\u201d, to which my own article denies any ironic connection. Sousa\u2019s essay predicted an end to amateur musicianship, at the hands of the newly invented gramophone and the player piano. Hans Zimmer, one of the world\u2019s most influential film composers employs a staff of composers who work out the finer details of his film scores. Zimmer prompts them with a structure, melodic material, harmonic progressions, and exercises veto power on the finished product.<\/span><\/p>\n If AI helps an artist\u2019s work along, by generating a \u201cmostly completed\u201d work for an artist to refine, then the artist isn\u2019t exactly engaged with the process from womb to tomb and the human executant is less executor and more editor.<\/span><\/p>\n Many will say that, in this context, my resistance is just a masquerade for inflexibility. The argument is that I need to adapt to technological advancement. By not doing so, I\u2019m only hobbling my own creative potential.<\/span><\/p>\n The prospect of AI sharing my artistic practice is troublesome because I worry it may reduce opportunity for me. But the motivation to refine AI to be a creator is mostly financially motivated and, I\u2019m sorry to say, there isn\u2019t really any financial opportunity for AI in the field of contemporary classical music.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, I really enjoy being immersed in my own artist practice and I don\u2019t think I particularly care that AI is out there disgorging musical excerpts in the style of famous composers, writing background music for whatever, or coming up with a new \u201cboing\u201d sound to advertise a product. Part of me has a hard time understanding why we would even want to create a shortcut through the creative process when it\u2019s such an enjoyable part of being a<\/span> musician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investigating AI-generated art and music’s influence on artists, its abilities, and concerns about creative processes and artist livelihoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":11320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[86,2,25,30],"tags":[47],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/04\/AL-Music.gif","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11321,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions\/11321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11319"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}